Various Artists - "Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love"

Adventure Time - This Dome is Our Home (Milan 2007)

Various Artists – Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love / Milan

While the I can easily understand the argument that some of the best music is produced by artists secluded from our continually interconnected web of a world (having no influences sometimes can be the best influence of individuality of all), but as music history has shown us, a geographically-centered collective of similar-minded musicians and artists create some of the most fascinating art of all. From the Delta bluesmen to Detroit’s Motown powerhouse to Memphis’s socially conscious Stax soul to NYC’s underground avant-rock to San Francisco’s flower power jam to São Paulo’s Tropicália to London’s British punk to Seattle’s grunge to Japan’s Shibuya-Kei to Chicago’s post-rock to Baltimore’s bass-heavy club and dozens of others I failed to mention, the right group of creative people all banded together in a constructive catalyst of a city can lead to revolutionary musical movements. Los Angeles has fiddled with a number of such collectives in the last few decades, from gangsta rap to West Coast punk, but they have really yet to establish one particular sound that truly defines the city for the better. Promotion group and party starter Artdontsleep (aka Andrew Lojero) has something to say about that though, and Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love is just the kind of eye-opener to get a scene recognized.

Just when gangsta rap was reaching its popularity peak in the mid-to-late 90s, a new anti-movement began bustling in the west coast metropolis. It brought together the hip-hop underground (and I mean all four aspects of the culture, not just rap) in reaction to the quickly spreading negative stigma associated with gangsta rap and began to create an antithesis to the style. Two particular labels have become very influential over the last decade in promoting and cultivating this underground rap and electronica sound, Stones Throw Records and Plug Research. Together they have presented just how far reaching the creative musical possibilities of hip-hop can be whether its presented in a minimal electronica or gritty rap manner. Highly influential in the cities music scene, artists have been mixing aspects of both label’s idiosyncratic styles and have began to define the L.A. underground with this hybrid. Both this compilation and Lojero’s productive parties display this evolution beautifully by collecting some of the most established and promising artists in the city.

From the Stones Throw side of the spectrum, the one man you are all wondering about, the one and only Madlib, is here in two of his many monikers. The deep funk of Sound Directions and the synth-jazz of Yesterday’s New Quintet both make brief but heartfelt appearances with “Wildflower” and “I Remember John Coltrane” respectively. Two of the label’s up-and-comers also contribute including a soul-resonating snap-and-beatbox number from Nathan Yell aka Aloe Blacc and a subdued thumper from sultry songstress Georgia Anne Muldrow. Plug Research also contributes three artists themselves. The new collaboration between Daedelus and Frosty named Adventure Time drops a sample-heavy, cinematic dublab banger, DJ Nobody’s new project with vocalist Niki Randa called Blank Blue provides a sexy, psyche-hop number, and quickly-rising producer Flying Lotus (who actually just signed to WARP) drops some of his skittering and swirling synthesizer-riddled instrumental hip-hop.

The rest of the compilation features other L.A.-based musicians that are a bit less known but still exploring the same sound with the same potency. Synth-jazz trio From Leaf to Feather open the album with a sound akin to Yesterday’s New Quintet but with a looser Brazilian vibe. Producer Computer Jay and vocalist The Gray Kid team up for a very chill track of blue-eyed soul vocals and flickering electronic flourishes, while hip-hop DJ and producer Exile follows with a laid-back and infectious stutter-hop number. The comp closes a bit more organic with both Isaiah Ikey Owens’s Free Moral Agents and Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson dropping some skilled musicianship.

Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love is solid from beginning to end and truly does present a scene that is both similar and diverse as far as the music is concerned. There is a definite, distinctive sound yet each artist can move around within its limits to establish their very own fingerprint. And on top of all that, the album comes accompanied with a 28-page booklet featuring the like-minded visual artists tying the scene together. Each exclusive song is treated with its own inspired piece of art, whether it is produced by photograpy, painting, collage or graffiti (typically a combination of all), created specifically for the project from artists like B+, Food One, Augustine Kofie, Dez Einswell and Blaine Fontana among others. The entire package is gorgeously assembled and a perfect visual representation to the music held within. If you live in L.A., there will be an album release party on June 16th at The A+D Museum featuring most of the artists involved that I imagine will be ridiculously amazing, so I hope you make it out to that. For all of us non-Los Angeles residents, the comp is about as close as we can get, so do yourself a favor and get in the know, because there some ridiculously amazing art brewing in City of Angels.